(almost) 20 Weeks!

We had our (almost) 20-week ultrasound today, and it's definitely a girl! Marc and I have decided on the name Karinne Elise; it probably won't change, unless someone can give us an even better middle name. I also decided to finally get Marc to take some "belly photos" since I kinda look pregnant :)

I also feel like I should mention something besides the baby--my weight loss! Since October, I've lost about  50 pounds--and nearly 70 pounds since the last time most of you saw me. I've dropped about 20 pounds since I found out I was pregnant in December--that's right, I haven't gained ANY weight. Am I awesome or what? Of course, my OB hasn't said a word about it, but I'm taking her silence as a sign of approval. My blood pressure is also still looking good; it was lower today than at my previous 2 appointments, so I'm even happier about that.

Our next appointment is April 21, and that will be for my Level II ultrasound (high-res) and glucose tolerance test (their standard time to check for gestational diabetes). At that appointment I will also get copies of my medical records and my "safe to fly" note--most airlines don't require that until closer to the end of the pregnancy, but I'd rather be safe than sorry. Then we leave Korea at 11am on April 25, and arrive in Dallas at 5pm on April 25!

obligatory "hand on the belly" photo

Right now I'm still wearing my regular pants, unbuttoned with a safety pin (and cutting into my stomach). I ordered some maternity jeans from eBay so hopefully I'll have them next week and then you won't see that dent in my tummy :) 

41 days until we're back in the USA!!!

Birthdays and Things

Marc is 30!! Can you believe it? He says he's okay with it, that he's happy to not be a stupid 20-something anymore ;o) (I didn't take offense. You should meet some of his coworkers--oh dear God, it's embarrassing to be in the same age bracket as them.)

To celebrate, I made Marc's favorite - chocolate cake with white frosting. A friend on the US Army base bought some good old Betty Crocker cake mix and frosting for me, and I made lovely little cupcakes in our toaster oven. The cupcake pan I bought was too big for the oven, so I just put the paper cups on a regular flat baking sheet--some of the cupcakes were a little oddly-shaped, but it worked out because there was more surface area for frosting :) I failed to take ANY pictures, mainly because the apartment was a disaster.

That night we went out with a few friends and had some delicious galbi. Marc's gift came in the mail on Monday--I got him a Kindle and a nice purple cover for it (his favorite color). Between that and the baby that I'm cookin', I'm pretty sure I win Wife of the Year (Marc even said he would worship at my feet if I felt it was required).

T minus 57 days! And now we can say we're leaving Korea next month!

It's February!

I know, I know. I'm real original with my blog titles.

Now that I'm for realz pregnant and not just "early first trimester pregnant," I think I'll start making more updates in this thing. Maybe some of you don't really care, but guess what--neither do I! Ha! :o) According to some people (who shall not be named), I'm also becoming the elusive Pregosaurus. She only comes out of hibernation for roughly 4 months at a time, hence the elusiveness.

Anyway. I'm 16 weeks along now--crazy, huh? Sometimes I think I might feel the baby moving, but it's probably just gas. There are a lot of things that people don't warn you about with pregnancy, and with good reason. It would scare too many women away from ever getting pregnant. Right now my biggest complaints are gas and pimples. I don't think I had acne this bad even when I was a teenager, and I'm pretty sure there's enough gas in my abdomen to power a small car--maybe one of those smart cars. As the pregnancy progresses, I can also look forward to heartburn, hemorrhoids, constipation--and those are just the advertised side effects. Whatevs. I guess I do get a baby at the end of it all, so it's all worth it--right?

We're starting to think about getting ready for the great move back to Americaland. If you haven't heard, we're moving back to Birmingham now. I got a great job offer from the company I worked for before Korea, and we couldn't turn it down. I'm not excited about trying to clear this place out. I kinda want to just pack up what we need, and leave the rest and let someone else deal with it all.

Okay, that's all I've got right now. Goodnight!

January Update

Ahh, January. I hate January. It's cold, and there's nothing to look forward to unless you have a birthday or live in a place where they celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

I'm about 12 weeks pregnant now--kinda crazy. I can't believe I'm nearly 1/3 of the way through. We went to see the baby doctor, Dr. Song, on the 18th. Marc and I both posted a clip of the ultrasound video on our Facebook pages, but in case you haven't seen it, here it is again:

I had no idea that 12-week-old fetuses could move around like that! No one has ever mentioned it, although I guess I haven't known THAT many pregnant people.

Not much has been going in the daily lives of Marc and Christina. I think we're both already counting down until it's time to go home to our new home in Texas. February should be more exciting though; the Lunar New Year holiday (Seolnal) is February 2-4 (meaning we get a 5-day weekend) and we'll be spending a couple of days in Seoul with a couple of our friends.

Now we're just starting to take inventory of everything in our apartment and figure out what to sell/get rid of and what to send home. Our goal is ship a few boxes to America and then just get on the plane with 1 or 2 suitcases each and the cats. Wish us luck getting everything sorted over the next couple of months :)

2010

2010 went pretty well. Nothing negative to report, and that's always a plus!

• We dug ourselves out of debt and started paying on my student loan
• We visited China and Singapore and Malaysia
• We decided we were content with our life in Korea, but not content enough to stay a third year
• I made the decision to take charge of my health and have lap-band surgery in October (oops, let the cat out of the bag!)
• Found out I was pregnant about a month after having the previously-mentioned lap-band surgery (haha, joke's on me!)

I'm looking forward to 2011, as it will see our return to the homeland and the arrival of our first child. 

Happy 2011! I hope you enjoyed your celebrations. We went with some friends to a park downtown to see a show and watch them ring the giant bell at the new year. Afterwards, we watched "Tron: Legacy" so we wouldn't have to wait behind thousands of people trying to get a taxi. 

Awesome vocal ensemble

Children's choir; they were adorable!

Traditional dancers

I didn't take any pictures of the actual bell-ringing or the fireworks because I was too cold to get my camera out again. 

Happy New Year!

P.S. If you're interested, you can check out my lap-band blog at Daegu Fatty.

December Update

And just in time, I might add :)

So, as most (all?) of you know by now, I AM PREGNANT!!! Marc and I are positively elated. As in I've already got 3 pregnancy books and Marc's reading them too. Oops, he may not want me to share that. Oh well! We got the positive on December 4th; it was only a minor surprise. We actually started trying LAST December, and then decided to stop trying in October until after we got home, and then I was pregnant :o)

We found a wonderful doctor here in Daegu, Dr. Song, to take care of me and the little one until we come home in April. He worked in Wisconsin for 17 years, and he's friends with Dr. Chung from St. Luke's Hospital in Newburgh, NY, who was my mom's OB when she was pregnant with me! Apparently they went to medical school together or something. I don't think I need to tell you that it's a small world after all.

The official due date is August 8 but when we commented to Dr. Song that our anniversary is August 5, he decided to change our official due date to August 5 in his computer. Maternity care is a little different here, because I will get an ultrasound at every visit (it's only $25 for an ultrasound here, as opposed to something like $200 in the US). I guess it's common practice in the US to only get 1 or 2 ultrasounds--LAME. I was also able to get the Go-Un Mom Card, which is basically a $300 credit card to use for my doctor appointments and any medications I need. It's available to all pregnant women in Korea who are covered under the National Health Insurance.

I'm a little disappointed that I'll have to change doctors and health care systems when I'm 6 months pregnant, but I suppose it's worth it to be at home. Even though the hospital just built a brand new labor and delivery wing and the birth would only cost about $1000 (and that's with 2-3 days in the hospital)... I promise I'm excited about coming home and having this baby with friends and family close by :)

Now for some pictures:

self-explanatory (wahooooo!)

The smiley mouth is my uterus, and the "tongue" in the middle is the baby

It's snowing tonight!

Yeah, that's really all I have to say. I'm waiting on Marc to come home with some delicious Taco Bell from the army base but it's probably going to be a while because of the snow. It's okay though, I have lots of scrump-dilly-umptious Christmas treats to snack on while I wait, hahaha.

A Thanksgiving "Feast" in Korea

Thanksgiving has come and gone here in the Land of the Morning Calm. Marc and I are thrilled that this was the last one on this side of the planet! We hadn't intended on cooking any special food, but at the last minute I decided to make a little something special.

I made pecan-crusted chicken breasts, mashed sweet potatoes, and green beans. That's about as close to Thanksgiving cooking as I can get without having an oven. Tomorrow (Saturday) we're (probably) going to a cafe downtown that's serving up some Thanksgiving goodies; turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and apple and pumpkin pie.

Oh, something I learned while making my pecan-crusted chicken: dried parsley can get worms if it gets too old. I learned this AFTER I added it to the pecans. Luckily, I had plenty of pecans so I just threw out that first mixture, and you know what? The chicken turned out just fine without the totally useless herb known as parsley!

I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving. See you in 4 months and 27 days!